After three tries, and at least 3 or 4 months reading it I finally finished A Game of Thrones last night, and boy am I glad I stuck with it, the books is amazing. Now, I'll be honest and admit that until recently I didn't really read stuff with this much graphic sex and violence (well, graphic for me at least), so a few scenes were rather for me, but other than that I loved it. The book really does have some great characters, with my favorites being, in no particular order, Ned, Tyrion, Jon, Arya, and Dany. And I thought the world building elements of the book were also outstanding, Martin has created a fascinating world that is realistic, but still has enough fantastic elements to make it interesting as an alternate reality. Has it been established by Martin what exactly Westeros/Essos's relationship to modern day Earth is? I also really enjoyed Martin's prose, it flows really well, and made it very easy for me to sit and read for an hour or two straight, which isn't something I do very often. I can't wait until I get a chance to read A Clash of Kings, but since I probably have close to two dozen books I own, but haven't read yet, it might take a while. My rating: 9.75/10

The title for the first episode has been confirmed as "The North Remembers" by HBO's online schedule. The episode has a running time of 53 minutes. A source that gave Winter Is Coming that episode title a little while ago also provided the second episode title as "Nightlands".

The Blu-ray release of the first season of Game of Thrones is loaded with extra features. Winter Is Coming has a rundown of them:

The Complete Guide to Westeros

A comprehensive, interactive guide of the houses, histories, and lands of Game of Thrones. The guide is broken down into three sections:
Houses – Contains six gorgeously animated histories of the great houses as told by characters from the series: Robb and Bran (Stark), Catelyn (Arryn), Robert (Baratheon), Tywin (Lannister), Viserys (Targaryen) and Jeor Mormont (Night’s Watch). Also includes bios of each member of the house and their various servants and vassals.
Histories & Lore – Nineteen animated histories of the Seven Kingdoms, as told by various characters from the series. Certain histories have multiple characters telling the same story from differing viewpoints. Here is the full list of histories with the character(s) that narrate each:

The Children of the Forest, The First Men, and the Andals – Bran
The Age of Heroes – Bran
The Old Gods and the New – Bran and Catelyn
The History of the Night’s Watch – Jeor, Luwin, Tywin
The Order of the Maesters – Luwin
Valyria & the Dragons – Viserys
The Field of Fire – Viserys, Robb
Mad King Aerys – Robert, Luwin, Tywin
Robert’s Rebellion – Robert, Viserys
The Sack of King’s Landing – Viserys, Robert, Luwin, Tywin

Lands – Learn more about the regions and lands of Westeros and Essos in this interactive map.
In-Episode Guide

The same content that is available in the Complete Guide, only accessible via an on-screen menu while watching the episode. The content available changes based on what is happening in the episode and certain aspects are only accessible once they are “unlocked” by the action on screen.
Anatomy of an Episode

A view into how they filmed episode six of the first season, with various behind-the-scenes features and interviews popping up throughout the episode.
Making Game of Thrones

A 30-minute look into the making of Game of Thrones. New interviews with Nina Gold and her casting associate Robert Sterne, Ramin Djawadi, Tom Martin (construction manager), Adam McInnes (vfx supervisor), Jim Warren (animal handler), and others. Of course, we also get quotes from David & Dan, GRRM, the directors and much of the cast as well. Some new cast interviews too, from Rory McCann, Alfie Allen, Kate Dickie, Iain Glen, and Finn Jones. The feature covers all aspects of the production from casting to set building, stunts and visual effects, costumes and more.
More Behind the Scenes Videos

Character Profiles – Short videos where the actors talks about the characters they play. Same as the ones released prior to Season One airing.
From the Book to the Screen – GRRM and David & Dan talk about the challenges of adapting this story to television.
Creating the Show Open – Interviews with Angus Wall and the Elastic team about how they created the title sequence.
Creating the Dothraki Language – Interviews with David J. Peterson, David & Dan and the actors about creating and speaking the Dothraki language.
The Night’s Watch – Interviews with GRRM, David & Dan and the Night’s Watch cast about the history and the ways of the Watch.
Hidden Dragon Eggs – Six hidden dragon eggs that contain cast audition footage.
Episode Previews & Recaps

Short previews and recaps of each episode. These are the same videos that HBO released as the season was airing.
Episode Commentaries

The Blu-ray release of the first season of Game of Thrones is loaded with extra features. Winter Is Coming has a rundown of them:

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Sounds like some great stuff. I'm especially looking forward to the commentaries. I wonder why Sean Bean wasn't involved in much though. No commentaries, and no narration. Ned would be a great narrator for some of the history stuff.

Not sure why he'd be bitter, he HAD to have read enough to know it was coming! It's not some random creation and they killed him for shock value, it's adapting a pretty well-known series, and that's kinda the lynchpin of the whole series' decent into clusterfuck...

Ok, I'm kinda confused by something. I haven't gotten to ACK yet, but I just read that Margaery Tyrell is marries Joffrey. So does that mean in the show they're going to have a character played by a 30 year old actress married to a character who's played by an actor who appears to be in his mid-to-early teens? Or are they changing that for the show?

Ok, I'm kinda confused by something. I haven't gotten to ACK yet, but I just read that Margaery Tyrell is marries Joffrey. So does that mean in the show they're going to have a character played by a 30 year old actress married to a character who's played by an actor who appears to be in his mid-to-early teens? Or are they changing that for the show?

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They'll probably go ahead with the marriage (the outcome of which has a huge spoiler connected to it, but you obviously don't mind being spoiled since you're in this thread) and simply play up the age difference of this particular political match.

Margaery's casting seems very odd to me, but at this point I've given up trying to make sense of their creative decisions. We've already established that marrying very young is expected, and then we're asked to believe that a woman from one of the most powerful houses who clearly has been sexually mature for a decade or more has remained unmarried all that time? I don't buy it.